Tough VSCA season continues at CTMP

Among the three cars entered in the two hour and 40 minute race at the Canadian track in Bowmanville, Ontario, it was the No. 84 Porsche 911 GT3 R with drivers Manuel Mayer and Jay Van Meppelen that got the best result.

Entering the final lap of the race, Mayer was running in third position when going into turn three, overall race leader, the No. 99 LMDh of JO Motorsports made an aggressive diving move.

The situation cost Mayer just enough time for direct GTD class opponent, the No. 5 car of Screeching Moose Motorsports to catch up with the No. 84 Fischer Motorsport Porsche and pass Mayer on the Clayton straight.

© 2023 Fischer Motorsport Lap 12: Travis Linscome-Hatfield crashes in turn two, effectively putting an early end to the No. 14 Dallara LMP2 team's race

Mayer, now forced into a defensive line for the final three corners of the final lap, was looking to protect his fourth position in the final corner, but was hit in the rear and turned around by the No. 9 BMW of Grizzly Motorsports driver Nicholas Davis.

Helplessly watching as the seemingly entire field passed on by, Mayer dropped to a P6 finish officially.

The GTD class sister car No. 85 Porsche 911 GT3 R with Niklas Solle and Canadian local fan favorite Will Robertson fared even worse, finishing a dismal P14, 17 laps down following a crash with the No. 11 Dallara LMP2 of Vision 1 Motorsports driver Matthew Allanson that forced the team to the call the tow truck and miss nearly half of an hour of racing action.

In LMP2 class, things did not go any better as the No. 14 Dallara P217 with Thomas Martin and Travis Linscome-Hatfield wound up P11, several laps down.

© 2023 Fischer Motorsport Lap 54: Niklas Solle crashes in turn three after a misunderstanding with another LMP2 class prototype

As was the case with their GTD team-mates, the LMP2 team too found trouble in the form of a crash when Linscome-Hatfield slid off the race track in turn two and hit the retaining wall hard.

The damage was so severe from the contact, the pit crew needed 26 minutes to get the race car fixed up enough for it to go back out on the race track.

The race all but over, the American-Australian drivers duo went on to finish the race nonetheless, albeit a disappointing 16 laps down and with no chance to be any factor in the race whatsoever.

“It’s just very disappointing today. I made a mistake into turn two, I don’t know, I just lost grip and went into the grass and from there I was just a passenger. I hate it for the team. This is definitely not what we wanted.”, said a dejected Linscome-Hatfield.

© 2023 Fischer Motorsport Final Lap, final corner: Manuel Mayer gets turned by the No. 9 car of Grizzly Motorsports driver Nicholas Davis to drop from third to sixth place on the final lap

In the championship the No. 14 LMP2 has lost ground but gets to keep its third place in the point standings with six more championship rounds remaining in 2023.

In the GTD class, the No. 84 has now moved past the No. 85 Porsche by keeping their seventh position in the standings while the sister car dropped three spots to tenth in points.

The next VSCA SportsCar Championship race takes place on June 17th at Watkins Glen, the 6 Hours of the Glen.